


A Way to Keep People in Your Mind

by punk_rock_yuppie



Category: Buzzfeed: Worth It (Web Series)
Genre: Andrew Gets a Cat, Cute, First Kiss, Fluff, Get together fic, Humor, M/M, Pining, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-23
Packaged: 2019-07-01 07:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15769623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/punk_rock_yuppie/pseuds/punk_rock_yuppie
Summary: Andrew gets a cat.If only it was that simple.





	A Way to Keep People in Your Mind

**Author's Note:**

> forever ago, hannah and i cooked up this idea together, and i recently found some notes for it in a notebook! so i cranked out this fluffy cute thing. big thanks to hannah for beta'ing! 
> 
> enjoy!

Andrew looks between the two cages. The cats couldn’t be more different—in appearance and in supposed temperament—and as such, he’s stuck. His arms are crossed tight over his chest as he looks at one cage, then the other, then back again, and back one more time.

One cat has a sleek coat, shorter haired, primarily a soft gray with black markings; its eyes are grayish-green and bright, wide, its ears twitching attentively. It’s toying with a little ball that jingles, but never once looks away from Andrew. It’s young, and the card hanging on the outside of the cage reads, _“SAMUEL. 1 YEAR. LOVES PEOPLE AND SNACKS. BIG ON CUDDLING. FAVORITE SHOW IS BILL NYE.”_

The other cat is beautiful: mostly white with a longer coat, its tail, back, and head painted in a mixture of gray and black. Its eyes are faintly golden and scrutinizing, sharp; it watches Andrew’s every move. Its resting in a little cat bed in the corner of its cage and like Samuel, it never stops watching Andrew. The card proclaims, _“GHOUL. 2.5 YEARS. AFFECTIONATE BUT SLOW TO WARM UP TO YOU. HAS SPECIAL DIETARY RESTRICTIONS* (*for questions, please see one of the SPOT reps!)”_

Andrew sighs.

“Did you need some help, sir?”

Andrew looks over to his left where a girl, just shy of his height, with a sharply cut blonde bob stares earnestly at him. Her lips are painted matte red, and she’s smiling widely. She kind of reminds Andrew of Keith, for some bizarre reason. It might be the height and the enormous smile.

Andrew blinks. “Uh.”

“These two are really great cats,” she starts. “I’m really fond of Sammy, myself.”

“If I got one, is it okay to change their name?”

“Sure!” She chirps. “Samuel would probably be easier since he’s still pretty young, and he’s had a couple names already. Ghoul has always been Ghoul, so I’m not sure she’d appreciate it as much.” The girl laughs, a broad, throaty sound.

“Right…” Andrew looks away from her to the cats again. “Could you tell me more about them?”

“Of course!” She points first to Ghoul. “She’s a great cat if you maybe work long hours or live alone. She can get super affectionate but she’s not so needy that leaving her by herself for a while would cause problems. Like it says here,” the girl plucks at the card, “she does have certain dietary restrictions that can make it a little tough or pricier to take care of her. But she’s worth it, I promise!”

Andrew snickers, and the girl only beams at him.

“Samuel, like I said, is younger. He’s more playful and needs a lot of attention. He _loves_ to meow, he’s so chatty, it’s awesome.” She rambles on a little longer but Andrew isn’t really listening. He’s lost in his thoughts.

Objectively, Ghoul would be a better cat. He doesn’t work long hours, but the trips they take for Worth It obviously cut into his time at home. A low maintenance cat would be easier on him, and the cat, too. Ghoul is still watching him appraisingly, and Andrew smiles.

“I think I’ll take Samuel,” he says, cutting the girl off abruptly. He cringes a bit. “Sorry.”

She only laughs. “It’s all good! C’mon over here and we’ll get the adoption paperwork going. So, cost wise…”

Andrew looks at Ghoul again as he walks away, and he could swear the cat is smirking. Samuel is right up against the edge of his cage now, and paws at Andrew as he walks past. Andrew pauses long enough to extend his hand to the cat, let the pink little nose brush up against his fingertips. Immediately, Samuel starts to purr, and Andrew knows he made the right choice.

 

Andrew sits down in the middle of his tiny living room and reaches into the cat carrier. The cat goes limp and noodly in his arms, purring right off the bat, and looks up mournfully when Andrew sets him the ground. He rolls onto his back and exposes his fluffy tummy, and Andrew is helpless to resist.

He scratches at the fur and feels the cat purr under his fingers. “Okay,” Andrew says.

The cat blinks up at him.

“Your name isn’t Samuel, anymore.” Andrew gestures, unnecessarily, to the paperwork that’s sitting on his dining room table. His wallet is roughly $180 lighter, through a combination of adoption fees, cat litter costs, and a hefty bag of cat food. “Okay?”

The cat blinks at him again. Slow, sweet, sleepy. Andrew’s heart kind of melts.

His face is blushing as he glides his hands over the cat’s fur. “Your name is Steven, okay? That’s a good name, isn’t it?”

The cat yawns and his eyes flutter shut. He’s asleep in moments, and Andrew has to bite down on his knuckles. It’s so fucking cute, he _almost_ regrets bringing the cat home.

“What the fuck am I doing?” He asks himself as he digs his cellphone from his back pocket. He takes a picture of the sleeping cat, uncaring of the clutter visible in the background. He slaps a caption on it ( _what the fuck did i do?_ ) and sends it via SnapChat. He’d post it on Instagram, but that’s a little too permanent for his tastes—fans would go haywire the minute they realize he has a cat. And then, it would be impossible to keep it from Steven.

Responses are almost instantaneous. Niki is delighted, as is Rie. Over the next fifteen minutes he gets a slew of snaps back and text messages. All of them are some form of congratulations and adorable emojis.

Adam’s message is the first to break stride.

**from [adam]  
** _what’s his name_

Andrew swallows, and texts back an answer. Adam’s response is immediate.

**from [adam]  
** _he’s cute_

**from [adam]  
** _like the real steven_

**to [adam]  
** _this steven is real, too_

**from [adam]  
** _you know what i mean_

Andrew sets his phone aside as Cat Steven starts to stir. He reaches out and strokes his hand over Steven’s side, over a paw that’s immediately retracted. Andrew laughs quietly to himself and scratches under the cat’s chin in apology.

“This is weird, isn’t it?” Andrew asks.

Steven’s eyes open again and squint at him. He meows.

Andrew nods. “Definitely weird.”

 

 

 

The thing is—Human Steven is in New York, now.

And he’s clearly loving it, very clearly happy, and Andrew can’t even be a little bitter about it. Sure, it felt like it had happened kind of fast. And sure, Andrew maybe had some regrets about not stepping up to the plate and saying certain things when he should’ve. But he’s not bitter. He’s not even _that_ sad. He and Steven text constantly, FaceTime a lot, Skype often. He’s not _lonely_ , by any means—even outside of Steven, Andrew has plenty of friends.

It’s just… none of those friends are Steven. And Andrew misses Steven. Sometimes, he misses Steven so much it physically hurts.

Hence: the cat.

 

Amazingly enough, no one tells Steven. No one brings it up even though Andrew never said it was a secret. But as word spreads through the LA Buzzfeed office about what Andrew named his cat, it becomes this sort of… unspoken thing.

Unspoken only in the sense that no one mentions it to Steven. Everyone is all too happy to rib Andrew about it at work, and at lunch, and when they go out for drinks. He’d be more pissed but—well, coming home to an overly affectionate cat every night, curling up with a warm little weight on his stomach…

There are worse things to be teased about.

Besides, Cat Steven is cute, and sweet, and yes, _very_ needy. But Andrew manages; he arranges for a sitter when he’s going out of town for Worth It and gets smothered in affection when he returns home. Cat Steven likes to sit on Andrew’s feet, and his chest, and likes to play with the edge of the bath water even though he’s scared of falling in, clearly.

Andrew loves Cat Steven, a lot. Probably about as much as he loves Human Steven.

 

It comes to a head when Steven shows up on his doorstep.

“Uh,” Andrew says eloquently.

Steven grins a little sheepishly. “Surprise!” He holds open his arms and Andrew tugs him into the hug he’s asking for. They hug for a beat, there on Andrew’s apartment doorstep, before finally pulling apart. “I was gonna message you but Adam said I should make it a surprise. It’s okay if I crash here tonight, right?”

“Yeah, of course,” Andrew says as he takes a step back and lets Steven in.

“My flight got delayed initially, so we moved my hotel booking around to accommodate it, cuz I thought I wouldn’t fly out until tomorrow morning,” Steven explains, tossing his bag onto the couch and starting to rifle through it. “But then it got un-delayed, and the hotel couldn’t change my booking, so I needed to stay somewhere. Adam offered, but I wanted to see you so—I figured—?”

“Steven, I already said it’s fine.” Andrew grins, a little exasperated. “You know you’re always welcome here.”

Steven grins at him over his shoulder. “Thanks, man.”

Andrew waves off the appreciation just as a meow sounds from the kitchen. Immediately, Steven’s eyes grow wide and his grin splits even wider.

“You got a _cat_!?” He’s off like a shot before Andrew can even try to reply. Steven makes a beeline for the kitchen and his sneakers squeak on the tiled floor; Andrew follows behind him at a more sedate pace and comes into the kitchen to find his cat winding and weaving between Steven’s legs. “It’s adorable.”

“Yeah, he is,” Andrew replies. His throat is a little tight.

Steven drops to his knees and coos at the cat. “We almost match!” He exclaims, delighted. He scoops the cat into his arms and holds it up to his face—up to his hair, which is gray at the tips and black at the roots. “I gotta get a pic of this.”

Andrew watches Steven fumble with his phone and snap several selfies, each cuter than the last. His cat is happy to submit to Steven’s affections, including numerous kisses to the face and head and nose, and he even lets Steven kiss a paw, which he’s never let Andrew do.

“You never told me!” Steven admonishes. He shifts to sit flat on the kitchen floor and cradles the cat in his lap. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me!”

“It didn’t come up. I snapped it when I first got him, but I think that was when you were on vacation.” He knows it was. It was the only reason he’d felt okay snapping the pic, because if Steven had asked him that night—like Adam had—what the cat’s name is… Andrew wouldn’t have been able to lie. The vacation had Steven outside cell reception for a full week, and it had felt like a blessing at the time.

“He’s so cute!” Steven declares. “What’s his name?”

Andrew leans against the wall and tries to look nonchalant as he says, “Steven.”

“Yeah?” Steven looks up. “What?”

“No—I mean.” Andrew’s face burns. His ears feel like they’re on fire. “Uh. His name.” He points a shaking hand at the cat. “His name,” he says again. He can’t quite get a full sentence out; it’s as if admitting _“I named my cat after you”_ aloud will make things worse.

Steven only blinks at him, his expression blank. He’s still stroking a hand along the cat’s back and Cat Steven is purring impossibly loud in his lap. Andrew waits it out, even though it makes him feel a little bit like he’s dying inside.

Steven’s eyes widen almost imperceptibly, after a few minutes. “Oh.” He looks down at Cat Steven, who looks up at him. “We really _do_ match.”

Andrew laughs. He laughs sudden and dazed and bends at the waist as he laughs harder. Steven starts to giggle before moving the cat from his lap to the floor. When Andrew stands up straight again, Steven is right beside him.

“You named your cat after me?” Steven asks with a grin.

“Uh, yeah.” Andrew tilts his head back against the wall and closes his eyes. “I… It suits him.”

“It does,” Steven agrees. “I mean, I’m flattered, don’t get me wrong.”

Andrew starts talking. It’s veritable word-vomit, but he doesn’t care.

“He loves to eat. Like, _all_ the time. And he’s so picky, but also not. He loves the most expensive cat food but he also stole Cheetos straight from the bag, one time. He likes attention and affection but once you hold him he’s really chill. Like, he just wants to be around people he likes, and he’s happy. The only way he’s not really like you is that he _loves_ strangers and new people.”

“I like meeting new people!” Steven says.

“Yeah, but, not like him. You get _shy_ ,” Andrew says fondly. “He’s just, going in guns-blazing.” Andrew shrugs. His gaze drops to their feet, his sock-clad and Steven still in sneakers. Steven shuffles minutely closer. “I didn’t tell you cuz it’s kind of weird.”

“It’s very weird,” Steven agrees. “It’s really cute, too.” He smiles at Andrew. “He’s a cute cat.”

Andrew swallows thickly. “He lives up to his namesake.”

Even though Steven had to know it was coming, his face still lights up in a blush. Andrew watches as Steven grows embarrassed—he grins even wider and his eyes flutter shut, but his face is warm enough that Andrew can feel it even from a distance, and Steven’s biting his lip like he’s biting back words.

“I really missed you,” Andrew says. He brings a hand to cup Steven’s burning cheek. “He’s helped.”

“I’m glad.” Steven presses his cheek into the touch. “Still mad you didn’t tell me, but it’s okay.”

“I promise to keep you apprised of all Cat Steven-happenings from now on.” Andrew swallows as he realizes he and Steven are slowly moving closer to each other, their faces leaning toward one another inch by inch.

“Good.”

The word is nearly lost in the kiss. Steven kisses him so gently, it’s almost _too_ soft. Andrew sighs into the faint pressure and opens his mouth. Steven makes a quiet noise in the back of his throat and then he’s moving closer, tucking his body against Andrew’s, and the kiss deepens. Andrew guides Steven with the hand on his cheek and Steven’s own touch finds Andrew’s hips.

A loud meow startles them from their little bubble. Beyond Steven, Cat Steven is staring at them intently.

“He’s hungry,” Andrew explains. “I was about to feed him when you got here.”

Steven laughs and steps back. “Can’t have him going hungry, now can we?”

Andrew rolls his eyes but goes about his routine of feeding his cat. It takes some tricky maneuvering, since Cat Steven’s favorite thing is to trip Andrew, but eventually he’s happily digging into a bowl of Fancy Feast. Andrew washes his hands of the chicken-in-gravy smell and then reaches for Steven.

They wander back into the living room, hand in hand.

“Adam’s gonna have a hay day with this,” Andrew says as they fall on the couch together. “He’s been trying to get me to tell you for months.”

“About the cat, or about how you feel?”

“Both.”

Steven snickers. “It was actually Adam’s idea I come here tonight. I was pretty tired and wanted to just go home with him, but he suggested I drop by instead.”

Andrew rolls his eyes. “Of course he did.”

Steven, half in Andrew’s lap, looks up at him. “I’m glad he did. And I’m glad you named your cat after me.”

Andrew tightens his arms around Steven and ducks to kiss him again. “I’m just glad you’re here,” he murmurs.

Steven smiles against his lips. “Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> if you liked this, [reblog it on tumblr](http://punk-rock-yuppie.tumblr.com/post/177290151011/a-way-to-keep-people-in-your-mind-stadam)!


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